This UN UNESCO’s extraordinary general conference dedicated to reintegrating the United States into the organization got off to a slow start in Paris on Thursday. Russia and Palestine have stepped up their interventions to slow down the talks.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay immediately demanded an answer to a “simple and strategic question”: “With the United States “finally” mobilized to return fully to our organization in July 2023, what answer does the community of 193 member states that make it up want to give them?”
Although 139 UNESCO countries supported the holding of an extraordinary general conference that began at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday and ended at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, several states – considered diplomatically distant from the United States – intervened from the start. Meeting on practical points.
There were criticisms that the conference was too rushed, some did not respect the rules of the organization, some received documents late, not in the right language, the debt burden of some states prevented them from participating in the referendum, UNESCO…: Palestine, Russia, China, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan or South Africa.
“It’s ridiculous”
“We’re stuck. It’s ridiculous,” a Japanese diplomat told the conference. “We go around with technical questions and we get very precise and professional answers,” a Swiss diplomat replied.
A Russian ambassador, denouncing “a stalemate,” called for a “suspension of the session,” without success. “The Russian Federation is ready to welcome the return of the United States, but this must be done according to the rules,” he said.
The first point of the conference, a vote on the reunification of the United States by countries not up to date on their contributions to UNESCO, took longer than expected at 02:15. Russia finally accepted with arms raised and insisted on disassociating itself from it.
“Prohibition Strategy”
Moscow, which has been at the forefront of opposition with Washington since its invasion of Ukraine, “has a very clear strategy of sanctions, but only highlights its isolation,” the UNESCO ambassador notes, noting that only a dozen states stand on the Russian side.
Conversely, China, whose relations with the United States are making some progress, has vowed not to oppose a return to the UN system, “having a very soft strategy,” he notes. Its representatives made little intervention on Thursday.
A “merit-based” restart is scheduled for Friday
The extraordinary conference finally adjourned at 6:15 p.m. after making very little progress. It will resume at 10:00 a.m. on Friday and will focus “on the bottom,” according to the American member, the Brazilian Santiago Rachapal Mourao, president of the assembly.
In early June, the US, in a letter to Audrey Azoulay, “proposed a plan” to return to the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization, which they left under the leadership of Donald Trump.
The US decision is part of a general context of growing competition with China, while Beijing seeks to replace the post-World War II international multilateral order, of which UNESCO is an expression.
“Persistent Anti-Israel Bias”
Washington condemned UNESCO’s “persistent anti-Israel bias” in October 2017 to justify the decision. This withdrawal, along with Israel’s, came into effect in December 2018.
Since 2011, when Palestine was admitted to UNESCO, the United States, led by Barack Obama, stopped all funding to the UN organization, a major setback for it, and then US contributions accounted for 22% of its budget.
US debt to UNESCO shrank between 2011 and 2018, and today stands at $619 million, an estimated $534 million over UNESCO’s annual budget.
The United States has indicated that it has asked the US Congress for 150 million dollars for the 2024 fiscal year, which should be provided in subsequent years until “absorption” of the arrears at UNESCO.
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